Ambassador of the Watchmaking Industry

The 2022 Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) awards ceremony will take place on Thursday, November 10, at the Théâtre du Léman in Geneva, Switzerland. WatchTime spoke with Raymond Loretan, President of the GPHG Foundation, in Geneva, about some of the lessons learned from the last edition, his role, and what lies ahead for the influential award.

- By Roger Ruegger

WT: How did the academy impact the award?

RL: I think what we are in now is the big adventure of reforming the Grand Prix. We started in 2020 with the creation of the Academy of the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève, and I'm a strong believer in the virtues of this academy. As you know, now, we have 500 members; I hope within the next five years that we can double this number. Based on this academy, which is intervening or involved in all stages of the selection process, I can put forward three principles I want to be the basis of the Grand Prix. The first one is the neutrality of the Grand Prix. I think, with such a basis for the selection, nobody can pretend that we are not independent, because it's not possible with such a platform of deciders to influence the outcome. So I think [we'll] neutralize this kind of doubts.

The second (principle) is the universality of the prize, in two dimensions. The first one is in the selection process, since people from all over the world are involved, we create the awareness that we are also open for watches that are not Swiss. The large majority of entries are Swiss, of course, that's also normal, but it's good to give the message that we want to promote the watch industry and the watchmaking art throughout the world, and that we are very happy to welcome candidates from other countries. It's still very shy and it will never be overwhelming, but still, you will be stimulating an industry in other countries.